3 Brides for 3 Bad Boys (11 page)

"Tell her I'll take care of it, but we aren't changing the wedding date."

It had shocked Phoebe at how well her aunt had taken the news of her upcoming wedding, but even more unbelievable was the way Aunt Emmaline and Rand had become partners in crime in putting on a wedding fit for royalty. Rand had told her she shouldn't be so surprised; both he and her aunt saw Phoebe as a princess.

She'd rewarded him with a type of lovemaking she'd learned that he loved almost as much as he loved her.

"How did things go with Carter?" she asked.

"He agreed to be my best man."

"You're kidding!"

"He didn't mind at all when I asked him."

"I'm not surprised he said yes, you fiend. I'm surprised you asked!"

Rand sat down on the couch and pulled her into his lap. "He wants to give me half of his damn company."

"You said no."

"You know me well."

"I love you."

"He doesn't take no very well. He threatened to just sign the shares over to our first child."

"What are you going to do?"

"We're working out terms. I'm willing to consider him giving me a portion of what existed before he took the company over from our father." He sounded disgusted, but then Rand had rarely run into another person in his life with as much stubborn determination as he had. "It'll have to be a three-way split, too."

"Did Carter find your other brother?"

"Yes. His mother knew all along where Colton was."

"His name's Colton?"

"Yeah, Colton Denning."

She brushed Rand's cheek. "How do you feel about having another brother?"

"I'm not as surprised as Carter was. Maybe I should be, but there was something broken inside my father for him to treat my mother and Carter's mother the way he did."

Yes. The man had been selfish beyond belief, but Phoebe didn't say that out loud. "So, you and Carter are working out terms with him?"

"We're trying. He's damn stubborn."

At that, she couldn't help it. She laughed. "As stubborn as the man I love?"

Rand's smile flashed, and she rejoiced in how frequently she saw that beautiful expression now. "Maybe, but not stubborn enough to stand firm against both Carter and me."

"What does he do?"

Rand started laughing, and she didn't understand why until he answered. "He owns a mining company."

"It looks like the three of you have one thing in common at least."

"Yeah, Luna Island."

She was willing to bet they had more than that, but she wasn't going to spend too much time thinking about it right now. She had better things to do … like make love with the man who had banished the loneliness in her life.

She'd been used to losing, but Rand had taught her that not only could she win, but she could have the greatest prize life had to offer.

The forever-after kind of love with a man who wanted and needed her as much as she wanted and needed him.

She leaned down and lost herself in his kiss.

C A R T E R ' S

C h a p t e r O n e

A
nticipation thrummed through Carter Sloane's body.

Soon he would know the answer to a very important question, a question that had been plaguing him for over four years.

Would Daisy Jackson's lips taste as good as they looked?

Impatiently, he increased his pace as he approached her office. The building was pretty much deserted, and he'd made sure it was so. He'd even sent security off the floor. He didn't want any witnesses for what he was hoping would take place. A kiss that would prove the desire went both ways.

Sweat broke out at his temples, and he tugged at the collar of his custom-tailored shirt that suddenly felt too tight. Thinking about Daisy made his blood so hot, it boiled in his veins.

His torment had been working for Sloane Electronics since she was eighteen.

Not that he'd met her that early on. If he had, he wondered if he would ever have ended up engaged to Phoebe. Starting in clerical, Daisy had worked her way to an important behind-the-scenes position in marketing.

She was much too shy to thrive on the sales team, or even in a position where she had to present her ideas to upper management. He found that endearing.

He'd met her over four years ago when she'd first moved into the marketing department, and he had fallen in instant lust. She was the main reason he'd left Phoebe practically standing at the altar. If he could feel such strong sexual attraction to another woman, he had no business marrying Phoebe. He had been convinced he carried his father's curse when it came to relationships and women.

But four long years of wanting the same woman, dreaming about her and finally getting to the point where he wasn't even interested in sex with other women, had taught him something about himself.

He had a helluva lot more staying power than his father. He might not be any more capable of real love, but he
could
do the fidelity thing.

Now he just had to convince Daisy she wanted to do it with him.

He was almost positive that her hormones were as affected as his. She blushed when their eyes met, and whenever he came close, her breathing got erratic. All definite signs the attraction was mutual, but he had to find out for sure.

Right now. He couldn't wait any longer.

It was after six P.M., but he knew she'd still be in her office. She had no social life. He'd asked around and discovered she never dated. Which shocked the hell out of him. Were the men around her blind or just stupid? His little Daisy was ripe for the plucking, and he was the lucky guy who was going to savor her sweet fruit.

He stepped into her office, and sure enough she was busy typing away at the computer. His nostrils flared just like an animal in heat scenting his mate as her vanilla perfume reached out and surrounded him.

"Don't you ever go home?"

She jumped and spun her chair around to face him.

Her black hair flew like a silk cloud around her face, and her almond-shaped brown eyes went wide like a Japanese animated cartoon.
"Mr. Sloane."

He took a step farther into the room and noticed with interest how she scooted back in her chair, even though the desk was an effective barrier between them.

"Call me Carter."

He couldn't picture himself coming inside her as she screamed
Mr. Sloane
in his ear.

"I-I don't feel comfortable calling the owner of the company by his first name."

He watched her luscious lips move and form the words. Their natural raspberry fullness just begged to be kissed. Why didn't other men react to the sensuality she exuded? Her lack of a social life was inexplicable to him, even taking into account her shyness. But he'd been in the room when she was exuding subtle mating signals, of which he was sure she was oblivious, and so were the men working with her.

He'd noticed, though, and they made him nuts.

She made a nervous movement with her hands as his silence stretched, and his libido went into attack-and-conquer mode. It had been way too long. If his experiment failed, he didn't know what he was going to do.

It could not fail.

She had to want him, too.

No way could this much desire be one-sided.

"I'm the owner, aren't I?"

She nodded, her pink tongue darting out to lick her lips and then retreating in a game of erotic peek-a-boo he was positive she did not intend, and he had to stifle a groan.

"I don't mind you calling me Carter. In fact, I prefer it."

"But… "

"Daisy, even your admin calls me Carter. I think you're the only person in the company besides old Mrs. Berger in the cafeteria that calls me Mr. Sloane."

She sighed, as if it really mattered. "All right. Carter."

He didn't know why, but he felt like he'd won a major concession. "Good. Now, I have a question for you."

She sat up straighter, scooting her chair forward, and clasped her hands on top of her desk. "Yes?"

"Have you ever felt sexually harassed here?"

Her dark brown eyes opened wide, and her lips parted, but nothing came out, not even a huff of air.

She was taking so long to answer, he was beginning to wonder if there was some guy working for him that he was going to have to fire. "Have you?"

Finally, she shook her head. "Uh … no."

"Good."

She knocked some papers off her desk and bent to pick them up, sending a CD-ROM in its case flying to the floor as well. She gathered the papers and dropped them in an untidy heap on her desk with the CD-ROM on top. Her cheeks were now as berry pink as her lips.

"Mr. Slo—I mean, Carter, why did you ask me that?"

He moved around her desk, stalking her and hoping like hell her nerves were due to reciprocal attraction to the boss and not fear. "It's important."

She leaned back in her chair, away from him. "But why?"

"If you don't want to do anything, you don't have to."

"That's good." She was looking at him as though he'd gone nuts, and the truth was, he had.

His nuts were controlling his brain, and it wasn't doing his powers of conversation any good. While he could schmooze company presidents, man-woman communication was not his thing, and right now he felt like a rookie manager giving his first presentation to the board of directors.

He gave up on the subtle approach and decided on blunt honesty. "Daisy, I want to kiss you, but I don't want you to feel pressured into letting me because I own the company you work for."

She squeaked like a startled mouse, and then shook her head, sending that gorgeous black silk cloud into motion again.

Disappointment took his heart in its grip and squeezed. Had he been wrong about her reaction to him? Or was she afraid of it, and how far could he push it without going into the realms of harassment? Not very damned far.

She gaped at him.
"What?"

He took another step toward her, finding it more and more difficult to rein in the primitive urges she brought out in him. "I want to kiss you."

"Now?"

That was definitely better than
no.
"Yes."

"I-I… "

He forced down the desire to just pick her right up out of that small black office chair and devour her lips. "You don't have to let me if you don't want to. Your job is not on the line. I won't hold it against you if you say no." But his balls were going to turn blue and fall off if that happened.

"I promise," he said for good measure. This had to be absolutely voluntary on her part, or it wasn't happening.

She tucked her shiny black hair behind one ear in a nervous gesture. It rippled over her shoulder, and he wanted to touch it.
Bad.

"You really want to kiss me?"

"Yes."

"Now?" she repeated, and it was all he could do not to shout the affirmative.

"Yes, now." His voice came out like some kind of animal growl, and he hoped like Hades he hadn't scared her.

She stood up and closed all but two feet of the distance left between them.

He had long arms, and they were itching to reach out so he could grab her. It took more concentration than he felt he could spare to stop from doing it.

"My job doesn't depend on this?"

"No." More growling. In a minute he was going to start howling like a wolf at a full moon.

Moons made him think of backsides, naked backsides. Carter came closer to losing it than he had since he was fifteen and necking with his girlfriend when she let him cop a feel under her blouse for the first time.

"Is that why you asked me about the um … the sexual harassment thing? Did you think I felt pressured sexually by you?"

"Not yet." He hadn't pressured her at all. He'd been extremely careful not to.

"But now you want to kiss me." She seemed to be having a really hard time taking it in.

He closed the distance between them and laid his hands on her shoulders. Her small bones felt fragile under his fingers. "I want to kiss you, and I need you to either say yes or tell me to take a hike in something like two seconds."

Her head tilted back so she could see him. She didn't look scared. She didn't look intimidated. She just looked confused, and at that very moment that wasn't a whole lot better than the other two. He needed to have his lips on hers in the worst way.

"Do you want to use your tongue?" She asked it like she'd ask if he wanted a mint, and it took him a second to grasp the meaning of the words.

When he did, his knees about buckled. "Yes. I'm going to want to use my tongue."

She bit her lip and stared at him for a second. "Oh."

"Is that a problem?"

"I don't like using tongues."

It was his turn to stare. Not like tongues? No. She couldn't possibly have said that. He wanted to use his tongue in a lot more places than her mouth.

"I'll make you like it."

"If I don't, will you stop?"

"Stop kissing you?"

"Stop putting your tongue in my mouth."

His knees did buckle, and he pivoted to fall back against her desk. He leaned on the edge and pulled her between his legs, so her body was one inch from rubbing up against the biggest, baddest erection he'd ever had.

"I'll stop if you don't like it."

"How will you know? I can't talk with—"

He couldn't bear to hear her say it again. "Hit my shoulder. I'll stop if you hit my shoulder."

"Okay."

His hands gripped convulsively on her shoulders. "Did you just say I could kiss you?"

"Only if you stop using your tongue if I tap your shoulder."

"I promise." But he was going to do everything in his power to make her like it.

She clasped her hands in front of her, closed her eyes, lifted her face and pursed her lips as though she'd just taken a bite out of a crab apple.